The Univeristy of Melbourne The Royal Melbourne Hopspital

A joint venture between The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Enteric infections | Current projects

Understanding enteric fever through studies of the human genome

We are using genomic approaches to identify human genes important in the defence against enteric fever. Through a genome wide-association study in Vietnamese patients we identified an HLA-DRB1 allele that confers 5 fold protection from enteric fever (Dunstan et al, Nat Genet, 2014).  We are expanding our typhoid fever populations for genomic studies within the Strategic Typhoid Alliance Across Africa and Asia (STRATAA) study in Nepal, Bangladesh and Malawi. We are working towards the future control of enteric fever, an important health issue in resource limited countries, by identifying novel aspects of host resistance to typhoid which in turn will drive new opportunities in basic and translational research.

Principal Investigator